During the heyday of the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park, as it was known, town coffers got an injection of racing taxes of over $800,000 for hosting the facility

However, that annual share of racing taxes dropped under $400,000 and under $300,000 at points as the popularity of dog racing in Raynham declined, while at the same time state officials counted the racing tax against the town when they calculated yearly local aid funds for the town, said retired 39-year selectman Donald McKinnon. Then dog racing was done away with by state voters, leaving the track with just simulcast betting, effective on Jan. 1, 2010, causing the local share of racing taxes to bottom out this past year, with only $64,913 given to Raynham for fiscal 2013.

Raynham first started getting its cut about 25 years ago, through state legislation after citizens petitioned the Governor and state legislators to get the town a cut of the money, McKinnon said.

But a seemingly related dip in local aid funds made the town’s finance planners adapt, so that Raynham didn’t lean on the unstable returns for an extra infusion of cash to meet budget needs.

“Did we rely on the money from the dog track 20 years ago? Yes,”said McKinnon, who served 13 terms from “Did we 10 years ago? Yes. But for the last five years or so Raynham’s Finance Committee has found ways of working with the current budget without all that racing revenue.”

Throughout all the fluctuations, according to town records, Raynham received an average of about $440,000 each year from the track as a share of racing taxes.

Now, Raynham has a chance of getting a guaranteed, definite sum each year for hosting a new $125 million slot parlor facility at the former dog track on Route 138, in addition to a vastly larger commercial property tax assessment. If Raynham Park, owner George Carney and his partners receive the sole slot parlor license provided by the state’s gaming legislation, the town would get a guaranteed $1.1 million mitigation impact payment each year, which would easily be more than the share of racing taxes Raynham received in “the golden time” of greyhound racing in town.

“About 15 years ago was the golden time when we received nearly $1 million and also had an assessed tax of the property that was not too much, because the track was basically a grandstand, open air facility,” said McKinnon, who just has reservations about the lack of a defined plan for policing the proposed slot parlor. “The slots will compare, I believe, to the best day we ever had with the track. The only problem in the old days was that the best day we ever had started to go down, and went down each year.”

The average share the town received for dog racing at Raynham Park was $440,000.

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Joseph Pacheco, current Chair of the Raynham Board of Selectmen, explained that the share was given to Raynham by the state, which took in the taxes initially. The formula for the payments was 1/10 of 1 percent of the track’s racing revenue went to the town, Pacheco said, and the most the town got was around $850,000.

Pacheco added that with the $1.1 million community host agreement, the slot parlor would also be creating less peak traffic on Route 138 than the dog track did in its heyday.

“The traffic studies have shown that traffic levels will be at or below what it was at a track,” Pacheco said. “For those people concerned about traffic, they are saying traffic is going to be less and we are getting more money.”

Pacheco said that the bigger benefit for the town is simply a result of how the gaming legislation was written in a more advantageous way than how the local racing taxes laws were formed.

Pacheco said, at the time, losing dog racing at the track hurt Raynham financially. But he said town finances could be rejuvenated — allowing for improvement projects and other investments for the town — if the slot proposal is passed in a town referendum on Aug. 13 before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission could consider it as a finalist for the license.

“It was a huge hit to lose that money from racing,” Pacheco said. “(The slot casino) will obviously be helpful for us. Since the track lost dog racing, we have been making do with what we have. There is a lot of stuff we want to tackle that we haven’t. One top priority of my mine is road projects. This will allow us to explore more of those types of project and do other things for the community.”

However, Pacheco said that he and others don’t want the slot casino to be the sole attraction on Route 138, and he lauded the Raynham Park developers for including a $15,000 annual façade improvement fund to help other businesses in the vicinity to better their selves.

Marie Smith, another current member of the Raynham Board of Selectmen, said that another difference between the proposed host community agreement and the former payment facilitated by the state as Raynham’s share of racing taxes, is that the impact mitigation will grow by 2.5 percent annually after year three of operation.

Smith said that the at least $1.1 million payment to Raynham will help town officials stabilize taxes for citizens.

“Monetarily, (the impact mitigation payment from the proposed slot parlor) it is going to be a big help to the budget,” said Smith, who also is concerned about the policing situation. “It’s going to allow us maybe to stabilize our taxes. The extra money coming in would be a big help in that respect.”

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Smith said that many Raynham residents remember the heyday of the Raynham-Taunton dog track, and they realize what the facility meant for the town when it was at its height of success.

“People remember the track and the help to community,” Smith said. “Yes, the traffic was a little bad for the daily double at 7:30 p.m., as people rushed to get there after work and get their bets in. But with a 24/7-slot parlor it’s not like that. … The slot parlor would be a big help to the budget after we lost those funds from the track.”